Crimson Quill Quarterly #7 now available as a paperback and ebook

The latest issue of Crimson Quill Quarterly is now available as a paperback and ebook.

Crimson Quill Quarterly #7 

Copied from its online description: 

Lies and Treachery (Part 2 of 2) by David A. Riley: After having escaped death in the Great Desert as they fled from their pursuers, Horbeck and his fellow mercenaries are hoping for some time to recover in the small, stockaded town they reach
beyond the desert’s edge, little realizing they will be betrayed and forced to grapple with creatures of appalling evil, some demonic and some human.

Feast of the Hidden Moon by Gregory Mele: A night’s carousal in the city of Na Yxim takes an unexpected turn when Ométl Five-Rabbit literally stumbles into a near-naked and badly abused young priestess, only to have abducted by a winged-horror. Reporting the encounter to her superiors only deepens the mystery. With Anaklyse, the priestess’s far more martially-minded sister, Ometl turns to his sorcerous employer find answers, and learns that there is far more afoot in Na Yxim society that he’d have ever guessed.

Chronicles of Fierge – Bloody Escape by Tom Doolan: After successfully escaping a cultist temple with the treasure, and his life intact, Fierge the White Rat runs afoul of a few particularly tenacious cultists. Seeing they aren’t going to be smart enough to turn back and leave him be, the warrior turns and deals with them in the best way he knows how.

Chitin is Not Bone by Robert Bose: Deep within the jungle canyons of Tsombu, Lord Ravencroft, the Baron of Bone, and Lady Cyn, Knight of Lost Carcosa, find themselves recruited by the insect like Jaru to deal with the ravenous child of an elder, potentially unforgiving goddess.

Into the Siege by Malcolm North: Clegg, a half-orc freebooter, is sent on an extraction mission that requires him to infiltrate an invading army and break into a besieged city. But he must contend with horrors that extend beyond war and a mission that he does not fully understand.

Judgement for All by Jason M. Waltz: Once again, Death stalks where Pawft walks. One botched theft, escaped hanging, street warfare, religious assault, and devious God later, the Breath of Death again walks alone.

The Kingdom of Memory by Tim Waggoner: A simple Egyptian fisherman finds himself trapped in the afterworld, pursued by a monstrous crocodile, and haunted by a suppressed memory as terrifying as any ravenous reptile.

A new Welgar story finished - Trapped in the Dreamlands

I have just finished the first draft of a new Welgar tale, tentatively titled "Trapped in the Dreamlands". It stands at 6,600 words long and follows the events that unfold when Welgar feels a compulsion to visit the family he has not seen for several years in the northern hills.

This makes the second Welgar story I have written after publication of Welgar the Cursed by Tule Fog Press, the first being "From the Ashes".  

Cover reveal for the next issue of Crimson Quill Quarterly

Issue 7 of Crimson Quill Quarterly will be available soon as a paperback and kindle eBook, but this is the cover, listing all the authors whose stories will appear in it, including the second part of my serialised Horbeck the Mercenary tale, "Lies and Treachery". 

The 2nd Part of my interview with Crimson Quill Quarterly

 

Here’s part two and the conclusion of David A. Riley’s Author Interview!

 

On the other hand, what do you think makes a good villain in an S&S or dark fantasy story?

 

They must be powerful enough to pose a genuine threat to the main protagonist. At the same time they should have at least some unique features about them to avoid being just some stock villain, which is not always as easy as it sounds. Preferably they need to be evil enough that the violent end they will almost certainly succumb to at the hands of our hero is justified.

 

Of your published works, do you have a favorite tale?

 

I have a fondness for my Horbeck stories. “Lies and Treachery” is the second of them, the first being “The Demon from Another World” which appeared in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium last year. I also like my Welgar tales, all of which were collected in Welgar the Cursed from Tule Fog Press earlier this year, though I must admit I have been far from kind to him. On the other hand I do have a special liking for “The Storyteller of Koss”, which introduces two of my recurring characters, Nadrain the Storyteller and Ossani the Healer. This was first published in Summer of Sci-Fi and Fantasy in 2022.

 

Can you offer any more advice, wisdom, or guidance to aspiring writers?

 

Study the markets you are writing for and be as unflinchingly critical of what you have written as you would be to anyone else’s stories, so that, hopefully, you can improve. Read as much as you can in the genres in which you intend to write so you fully understand them and can avoid the cliches.

 

What is the best way for readers to keep up with your work? Are you available on any form of social media?

 

https://davidandrewriley.blogspot.com/ is a site in which I talk about my stories and announce any news about them.

https://paralleluniversepublications.blogspot.com/ is my publishing site, which I provide news and details of books from Parallel Universe Publications, which I have run for several decades now.

I also have a couple of Facebook groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/799792464049764 which is called “Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Public Group”, which discusses all things sword and sorcery.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002067187340 is my personal Facebook group where I usually announce anything I have being published, etc.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1537345449688760 is my Parallel Universe Publications Group.

New dark fantasy story finished: Masks of Deception

It maybe rubbish, but I have completed my third dark fantasy tale over the past couple of weeks, a 7000 word tale I am currently calling "Masks of Deception", featuring my recurring character Ossani the Healer, along with his apprentice Arrenya. New characters are a second apprentice and a barbarian thief called Crossan, who bears many superficial similarities with another character whose name begins with "C". How things develop with this "C" though is another matter...

Oh, and there's a sinister Agryptian sorcerer-priest called Hoshan Kha.

I must admit, whether the tale's good or bad, I enjoyed the ride.

 

Over the past couple of weeks I have also completed two other tales:

"From the Ashes" (a Welgar story) at 6700 words

"A Murder of Necromancers" (A Horbeck story) at 13600 words 

A new advert designed for Sword & Sorcery books published by Parallel Universe Publications

 

The Adventures of Kyle McGertt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender – Book Reviewed by David A. Riley

This was first published on Hellnotes August 2013 

The Adventures of Kyle McGertt: Hunt for the Ghoulish Bartender

By Charles Day

Blood Bound Books

Paperback version $7.43

Kindle version £2.96

Reviewed by David A. Riley

This is the first YA novel I have ever read. It’s also the first horror Western I’ve read too. In both instances I had a pleasant surprise – I enjoyed it far more than I expected.

Charles Day has a very readable style and the action moves rapidly, though not at the expense of character and some vivid descriptions. The Ghoulish Bartender himself, though completely evil in his actions, is far more than a two-dimensional villain. He has a back story every bit as tragic as any of his victims – and an awareness of what he has irretrievably lost to become what he is – a fate that not chosen by him, but forced on him as a curse.

Nevertheless he has grandiose plans to spread the curse of the ghouls on every community he comes across. In this, only Kyle McGertt, inheriting the crusade of his dead father, can hope to stop him. Robustly violent, yet with some subtle humour, this short novel is the story of how these two opponents finally come confront each other for a final showdown.

The Smell of Evil by Charles Birkin - reviewed by David A. Riley on Hellnotes

This is an old review of mine from Hellnotes back in January 2014. 

 

The Smell of Evil

by Charles Birkin

Published by Valancourt Books

ISBN: 976-1-939140-74-6

December 2013, $16.99 PB

Reviewed by David A. Riley

Dennis Wheatley is quoted on the back cover as stating “More than a definite touch of the great master, Edgar Allan Poe.”  Well intentioned though that comparison may have been, it is totally misleading. Birkin’s style is as far from Poe’s as it could possibly be. You’ll rarely find anything approaching the Gothic horrors of Poe within the dark tales of human evil in Birkin’s stories. Invariably set within the contemporary world, the characters in these thirteen tales are firmly based on reality.  Whether they be self-deceived German gardeners working within the shadow of Second World War concentration camps or young tearaways escaping from a race riot in 1960s London, the horrors within these stories are of man’s (or woman’s) own making.

With an elegant writing style, Birkin shows his complete mastery of the conte cruel, leading the reader on to some of the most sadistic climaxes in literature. He rarely uses the supernatural, though when he does, as in “Little Boy Blue”, he is as proficient in this as in his more usual kind of story.

Born in 1907, Charles Birkin (later Sir Charles Birkin) had a long literary career, editing the Creeps series for Philip Allan in the 1930s, as well as an inaugural collection of his own stories, Devil’s Spawn (1936), before laying his writing to one side during the Second World War when he served in the Sherwood Foresters. Many of his most infamous stories stem from his experiences during and just after the end of the war when he witnessed first hand what men were really capable of doing. It was not till the 1960s, though, that he began writing again with the encouragement of his friend, Wheatley. The Smell of Evil was the first of seven collections published during that decade, culminating in Spawn of Satan in 1970. After living in Cyprus for several years he died on the Isle of Man in 1985.

Long out of print, other than several hard cover, now collectible volumes from Midnight House, it is wonderful  to see Valancourt Books at last bringing an easily affordable collection to a new reading public. It would be even more wonderful if over the next few years if the rest of Birkin’s collections are brought back into print.

This volume is rounded out with an insightful introduction by John Llewellyn Probert.

A new swords and sorcery story finished: From the Ashes

I am in a writing fit at the moment which has resulted in me completing another swords and sorcery story, one I started several months ago. This is a 6,800 word Welgar story, "From the Ashes", which also reintroduces two of my other recurring characters, Ossani the Healer and his apprentice Arrenya. It also includes a dog.

The Complete World of Horror Volume 3 - The Shade of Apollyon

I received my copy of the hardcover volume 3 of The Complete World of Horror today, which reprints facsimile copies of issues 7, 8 and 9 of this magazine from 1974. Contained is a reprint of my early horror story, "The Shade of Apollyon" illustrated by my friend Jim Pitts.

Elsewhere in the book is also a reprint of David A. Sutton's story "The Bestwick Papers", again illustrated by Jim. 

Interview in Crimson Quill Quarterly

Delighted to see the second part of my Horbeck the Mercenary story "Lies and Treachery" will soon appear in the July issue of Crimson Quill Quarterly.

This is my second Horbeck tale, the first being "The Demon from Another World" (Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium). Since then I have written four others, finishing the last only yesterday at 14,000 words.

In the meantime Crimson Quill Quarterly have posted online the first of a two-part interview with me: 

 

"For our next Author Interview, we caught up with David A. Riley, whose story "Lies and Treachery" appears serialized over two parts starting in the April 2025 issue and concludes in our upcoming July 2025 issue of CQQ!

Story overview:

After having escaped death in the Great Desert as they fled from their pursuers, Horbeck and his fellow mercenaries are hoping for some time to recover in the small, stockaded town they reach beyond the desert’s edge, little realizing they will be betrayed and forced to grapple with creatures of appalling evil, some demonic and some human.

Do you have further plans for this character and/or setting featured in your tale?

All the major characters already feature in an earlier story (“The Demon from Another World”). I have already written three more and have plans for a fourth. Whether or not all these mercenaries will survive these tales is another matter, but I am tempted for at least some of them to continue for a while yet as I have a great fondness for them.

Now that you have been published with CQQ (and possibly other markets) a number of times, how do you feel your style has changed over the course of your writing career?

For most of my writing career I concentrated on horror with an occasional venture into science fiction, though these tended to have elements of horror too. For the past four years, though, I have concentrated on sword and sorcery, or at the very least dark fantasy, such as in my tale “The Carpetmaker of Arana” which appeared in Savage Realms Monthly. My writing style had already changed over the years as, I think, I learned from practice and experience. This was brought home to me when I recently had to proofread two of my very earliest horror stories, due to be reprinted in a hardcover edition from a rather prestigious publisher. I was surprised how overwritten some parts of these tales looked to me now. And, of course, writing fantasy has seen another alteration in my style, with more emphasis on world building and action.

Furthermore, can you describe your writing process? Do you have a certain routine you like to follow or a certain time of day you like to write at?

I have absolutely no routine at all and never have. The first thing I need is to get into whatever tale I’m writing, then I might add more to it at all times of the day and night in short, productive spurts. I wish I could be like some writers who set aside certain hours of the day to sitting at their typewriter or, more likely these days, their computer to concentrate on adding thousands of words to whatever they’re writing. I can’t and never have done that, perhaps because I have never been a fulltime writer but always had a day job and writing was something I did in my spare time.

What do you think leads to the creation of a good protagonist in an S&S or dark fantasy tale?

They obviously need to be interesting or at least have something about them which can capture the empathy of the reader – and of me, of course, as their creator. I like to think of them as well-rounded characters with distinctive traits and personalities, and their fair share of virtues and vices to give them credibility.

Stay tuned for part two of David’s interview, which will be posted on Thursday!"

New advert for Welgar the Cursed

I created a new advert for my collection Welgar the Cursed, published by Tule Fog Press, which I have circulated online.

 

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

The Shade of Apollyon reprinted in World of Horror Volume 3 from Confessions Press

Confessions Press will be releasing their third volume of hard cover facsimile copies of World of Horror, a monthly magazine from the 1970s. Volume 3 will include issues 7, 8 and 9 of the magazine. Issue 7 included an early short story of mine illustrated by Jim Pitts, The Shade of Apollyon.

The Complete World of Horror 

Check out our new page dedicated to Welgar the Cursed

I have now created a page dedicated to news and information about Welgar the Cursed, a chronological collection of my Welgar stories published by Tule Fog Press as a paperback and ebook. 

Welgar the Cursed - Sword and Sorcery collection